Pakistani rights group condemns killing of British woman

Islamabad, Oct 29 (IANS) A Pakistani women rights group Friday strongly condemned the brutal murder of a Pakistani-origin British citizen in the country and urged the government to take immediate action to nab the assailants.

The Pakistani Women Human Rights Organization (PWHRO) urged the global community to set up an international monitoring mechanism for the protection of women in Pakistan. It also sought help to bring to justice the culprits in the case.

Tania Yousaf, 22, was killed May 20 along with her parents, Mohammed and Pervez Yousaf, at a graveyard near Gujrat in Pakistan’s Punjab province. She hailed from Nelson, Lancashire in Britain.

British MP Andrew Stephenson, who has taken up the case, said that Qamar Abbas, Sheraz and Naveed Arif, who were related to the Yousaf family and were arrested for the murders, had “unbelievably” been granted bail.

The Yousafs were murdered during a visit to Pakistan for a wedding. Tania was dragged out of her car by the assailants who made her call her husband for help on her mobile phone.

She was killed even as her husband was on the line. Scores of bullets were recovered from her body during post-mortem.

Sheraz and Naveed Arif are the brothers of a woman who had been married to the eldest son of the Yousaf family, and their marital difficulties are thought to have led to the murder.

Nine other British citizens and two other Europeans have been killed in Pakistan since October 2009.

“If this is the safety record of foreign women in Pakistan, which is monitored by other countries, one shudders to think of the fate of the Pakistani women,” the PWHRO said in a statement.